As Northeast India makes up only 4% of India’s population, this remote and isolated region is notoriously excluded from both policy making and welfare programmes. In the hope of improving this situation in a mostly rural and poor area, the Indian government implemented specific schemes to improve access to basic services regarding health, education or housing. Yet these schemes are often obscure to the people who live there, especially since they speak a different language from the rest of the country.

As ACTED and its partners NEICORD and PAC are now closing a four-year project supported by the EU to remedy to this issue, we take a look back to see what the project has achieved and what remains to be done.

Bridging the communication gap for better access to public services

In order to raise awareness about public services (such as a scheme that enables pregnant women to give birth in government hospitals free of charge, and provides free healthcare for new-borns), a mass information campaign was organised. Its approach focused on mixing media to reach a diverse and large audience.

20 TV and radio programmes

525 articles

2 million texts

3 village information campaigns

24 common services centers

Twenty TV and radio programmes were developed and broadcasted to disseminate useful information about the target services. Another twenty fellowships were offered to local journalists for publishing articles to inform local communities of their social rights, and so 525 articles were published during the project period. But there were also less conventional approaches, as text messages alerts on schemes were also set up, with two million SMS sent during the project. Furthermore, three village information campaigns reached more than 36,000 families across four districts of Northeast India.

ACTED 2017

Microphone announcement at Balijana in Goalpara District during the third village information campaign in December 2017

Lastly, 24 local businesses, mostly Internet cafés or stationery shops, were given a grant to be used for purchasing computers and other IT equipment to become Common Service Centres and provide services like IT courses. They are meant to be essential community resource points to relay information about public services: information on what people are entitled to, procedures and the offices to go to when applying to the schemes, as well as access to e-grievance facilities, are made available to all by these centres. One of the centres’ owners, Anika, says she has helped more than 700 people register online to get a teaching diploma, helped new voters register online, students apply online for scholarships… All in all, about a hundred people come each day to her centre.

Beneficiaries advocate for better quality of public services

Besides raising awareness, ACTED also strived to address the issue of service quality and give a voice to service users. This was done through social accountability tools such as the Community Score Card (CSC), meant to assess public service delivery. During a CSC, both service providers and users score service quality, in separate focus groups, followed by a joint, collective analysis and discussion during face-to-face meetings. This provides a platform for direct advocacy by the communities.

60%

increase in satisfaction

regarding availability of doctors

90%

participants reported an improvement

in the quality of the services

For example, during one of these joint meetings, beneficiaries mentioned the lack of doctors, and as a result local authorities agreed to advocate the state for the immediate filling of vacant positions. Promises were fulfilled, and it was found at the end of the project that users’ satisfaction regarding availability of doctors increased by 60%. Overall, nearly 90% of the participants reported an improvement in the quality of the services between the beginning and the end of the project.

ACTED 2018 with VISME

The way forward

Despite the progress made, much remains to be done to ensure that all eligible people benefit from public services, as discussion with communities and civil society organisations should continue to improve access to services for women, minority groups, and people with disabilities. The communities of Northeast India need to be continuously engaged both by NGOs and government authorities in the feedback processes to demand efficient service delivery. Moving forward, further space for beneficiaries to share their issues and concerns with public service delivery should be focused upon.

As the project now ends, it is essential to build on and continue this momentum to ensure the long-term sustainability of this intervention.

Beyond the project period, local NGOs trained by ACTED and its partners will continue to advocate for improvement in service delivery and better access to public schemes. Indeed, one of the community leaders who participated in the project, Sita, thinks that:

If the people come to know about their rights, the issue of underdevelopment will certainly take a back seat.

SIGN UP TO OUR LATEST NEWS

Stay in touch with ACTED teams in the field

When subscribing to the ACTED Newsletter, I agree to receive information from the charity, and for my personal data to be processed for this end.

6695

Your email will only be used to send you our newsletter and other relevant information about ACTED. You may unsubscribe at any moment by clicking on the unsubscribe button at the bottom of all our emails. For more details.

You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings.

Privacy

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful, so we can improve your browsing experience and the information made available.

You can adjust all of your cookie settings by navigating the tabs on the left hand side.

According to the French law N• 78-17 of 6 January 1978 on computing, data and liberties (CNIL), all users who has deposited nominal information either directly or indirectly, may ask for the submission of this nominal information through a request to ACTED Data Protection Officer either by email or in written to ACTED DPO, 33, rue Godot de Mauroy, 75009 Paris, France – and have them edited or suppressed.